Regarding boredom and sore legs:

I like Dave's idea of the podcast -- I haven't tried that yet.  I do listen to music -- my terrain and traffic allow that to be done safely.  I do keep it down low enough to be aware of any cars which do come up behind me.  (Stay left, of course).

My legs were sore on long runs more so when I first started, so I'd say that does go away, but slowly.  For me my knees and feet hurt every time I did a 20 for quite a while.  Just remember that it is expected, that means you are doing it right (whatever that means), and try not to worry about it too much.

For my longer runs I try to divide it into quarters, and every quarter I run I kind of "click off" in my head.  If the run is an out/back, the halfway point is a good one to look forward to.  Also whenever I get to less than 10 it's nice to think that I don't have many miles left.

There's no doubt that even 3 miles left at the end of a 20 (or a marathon) is going to be hard.  The 20 gets you ready for the marathon this way.

I see someone did 17.5mi two days in a row - nice job. Enjoy the taper.

 

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Ran my relay marathon leg yesterday afternoon. All in all it was a lot of fun, but my actual run part was a bit of a letdown. I think I was doing well on pace til about mile 20, then just felt tired and let the pace slide up nearly a min/mile.

 

Not sure exactly what went wrong (I mean, because I didn't go as fast as I wanted, and my pace dropped off from 20mi on).

 

Possibilities/excuses that occur to me include

 * not having eaten enough (hadn't planned for lunch and didn't get any, but didn't start my run until after noon, so should have had an early lunch)

* not taking in anything much during race (carried water bottles, refilled one of them, and twice late on stopped for a cup of gatorade -- that's it, no gus or orange slices or anything

* just not having the will to push hard enough

* not having done enough long runs or long tempo runs or ANY fast finish long runs

 

On the plus side, my relay team members were fun to meet. Rich, who did the swim, told me their strategy was for Tom to hammer the bike in hopes of putting me out in the lead, and hoping I could hold the lead.

 

Rich came out of the water in 15th place, which I thought was great, but he was disappointed because he didn't feel tired enough, meaning, he thought, he should have pushed harder.

 

I found the trailer where they had a laptop set up showing on a map where the lead and trail cars were, and about mile 40 they called in bib numbers for places 1,2,and 3. Tom was in 3rd, with gaps of about 7min and 4min.

 

I volunteered at the bike special needs bag handouts, which was fun -- Sue Ellen and Linda were chatting about baby stuff - both are expecting grandaughters in 3-4 months, both will be their daughter's first, both girls -- I learned that a glider is baby furniture, because it is somewhere for mother to sit and feed the baby...

 

I saw Tom come through in 2nd, maybe 3-4min back.

 

I was checking at the trailer, and about 80mi in they called a lead switch to bib 236A. My bib was 234R, so I was pretty sure Tom just pulled the lead and they misread the bib. So I made sure I was standing in transition when the leader came in. It was Tom of course, and he gave me the chip, I fumbled it on, bumbled around asking people where I was supposed to go out, and then was off.

 

It was a 3 times out & back -- 4 aid stations that you pass 6 times each! That way instead of being lonely for 26miles, you keep passing people, as people keep transitioning from the bike to the run and joining you, even if they're on a different lap. I liked that part, having plenty of other people around, so I could feel that comradely spirit of how we're all suffering together.

 

No one ever passed me, but I passed maybe 6 or 8 people (all on different laps than I, of course).

 

I've seen the final results now. The first two individuals off the bike finished 30+minutes behind me, and ran 3:21 and 3:18 marathon splits, so there was never any chance of them catching me.

 

But after the first out & back, when I didn't think to take note of the bib numbers of who was behind me, there was no telling who was where, because we were all mixed up with the people on their first lap (while we were on our second) and so forth.

 

It was painful to walk around afterward, and I had trouble even drinking chicken soup afterward -- took it very slowly as I felt a bit nauseous. But last night I was walking up & down stairs with no trouble, and today I ran 10mi on hilly trails, which felt fine, if I felt a bit tired (but that terrain always makes me feel that way).

 

So I think I'm good on distance, but weak on getting & holding the pace up (or rather down).

 

I'd say not eating well earlier in the day may have had something to do with that Perry oh and will to push at the end could also have contributed. Anyway looks like you did AWESOME!  Marathon's a bitch PERIOD!   My main focus during Run for the Red was all about holding pace! Now I'm hoping to push the pace and hold it in 2 weeks. Wish I had some advice for Crystal however I rarely have to deal with cramps or that much soreness after my long runs.

Oh and it was a little over 18 and 18

Oh and it was a little over 18 and 18

 

Yeah, the automatic axes are kinda funny sometimes -- like when I was checking out your graphs (oops, sorry, heh, I was spying), there were tick marks for 17.5.

 

Crystal ran a 5K yesterday morning, and chatted with a guy who did our trail series last spring, and he told her about a recent trail race he did where he felt a pain late in it, and afterward driving home, noticed fang marks in his leg. So he went to the ER, they diagnosed it as copperhead, but he was fine and was discharged. Gee.

 

Bugs, I tend to suppose that more rest is better also -- I guess just because I've read a number of times people saying that more rest really helps racing -- so I try to get more rest before races, but that's tough -- I often get keyed up and wake up early, or can't fall back to sleep in middle of night after popping up for a snack...

 

Nice race Bugs -- 1:20:?? is a very good time!

Perry - I agree some food and gus would have helped, along with more water.  As we get dehydrated our blood gets thicker and just that will make us bonk early.

Re Crystal's cramps - I posted a while ago about e-caps -- has she tried them?  See http://www.hammernutrition.com/za/HNT?PAGE=PRODUCT&PROD.ID=4037 .  These work well for me.

6.2 miles, 57:24, 9:17/mi, AHR 130 (67% MHR)